Professor Jim Vernon

jvernon@yorku.ca

Office Location:  S427 Ross Building

Phone Number:  (416) 736-2100 Ext. 33519

Office Hours:  TBA

This course is an introduction to the philosophical thought of the three most important rationalist philosophers of the seventeenth century: Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz. We will examine and discuss their solutions to the following problems of metaphysics and epistemology: the nature of reality, innate ideas, the foundations of knowledge, the existence of God, the relation between reason and emotion, the mind-body problem, and why there is order rather than chaos.

1. R. Descartes, Discourse on Method; Meditations on First Philosophy. Trans. by D.A. Cress (Indianapolis: Hackett).
2. B. Spinoza, Ethics; Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect; Selected Letters. Trans. by S. Shirley, ed. by S. Feldman (Indianapolis: Hackett).
3. G.W. Leibniz, Discourse on Metaphysics and Other Essays. Ed. and trans. by D. Garber and R. Ariew (Indianapolis: Hackett).

Mid-term exam 25%

Term Paper 35%

Take-Home Final Exam 40%

Reading/lecture schedule TBA, but will begin with Descartes and end with Leibniz.

The course is designed as a combination of lecture and discussion. Please do all the assigned readings, be prepared to discuss them, and bring the text to class with you. There will be a moodle website; by department policy, the take home exam and the final essay must be submitted to turnitin.com.

• Students should be able to interpret and critically appraise arguments from the rationalist tradition, and present their results in a clear and compelling written form.

Students should be able to compare and evaluate the basic arguments of the central authors in the early modern rationalist tradition of Western philosophy.